Breaker
Breaker is one of the twelve power classifications created by the PRT still in modern day use.“I do,” Weld nodded. He’d memorized it as a rhyme, as suggested by his old boss. Maybe that had been the intention from the start: Mover, Shaker, Brute and Breaker. Master, Tinker, Blaster and Thinker, Striker, Changer, Trump and Stranger. - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1 Breakers have the ability to alter themselves to a different state in which they maintain different abilities, although Breakers with permanently altered states also exist.Has the ability to alter themselves to a different state in which they maintain different abilities. Appends other powers, but only in this state. Can also include general altered states. Target the individual outside of any enhanced state where possible. All other effects depend on the sub-classification. - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Breaker - BREAKERS, document by Wildbow. Description Nearly all powers have some small element of Breaker to them:Breakers are those who alter their physical (and sometimes mental) state to something alien and power-generated. While all powers have some small element of breaker to them, the breaker-centric powers are the ones where the individual switches over to a completely different state. The state can have a singular benefit that breaks the defined rules of reality (as any power does, but centered around the parahuman’s capabilities) or a state they enter that contains a suite of powers, but that state may have costs when adopting it, costs to maintain it, or costs and complications in other forms. - reddit comment by Wildbow. the innate defenses of parahumans that keep their own powers from harming them are generally Breaker powers.There was a theory that was gaining traction, suggesting that the breaker classification was one of the most common powersets, if not always the most pronounced. Innumerable people with powers had also adapted innate defenses that kept their own powers from harming themselves. Pyrokinetics tended to be resistant to flame. - Excerpt from Interlude 14.y This does lead to some confusion however.“I don’t really keep track of the terms,” she said. “I looked online once and it seemed like everyone was a breaker.” “Almost everyone is, if you want to be super technical,” I said. “But that’s power geek talk. If I’m thinking of the same sites you are, it’s because the template that was copied for individual cape bios had ‘breaker’ included in it by accident.” - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8 Powers that earn a true Breaker rating are those that cause the user to alter their physical (and sometimes mental) state to something alien and power-generated. This altered state can have a singular benefit that breaks the defined laws of reality (as any power does, but centered around the parahuman’s capabilities) or a state that contains a suite of powers. The altered state may have costs when adopting it, costs to maintain it, or costs and complications in other forms. Breakers have a strong connection to their ShardBreakers enjoy or endure a stronger connection to their power and their shard than most capes, and where many capes will experience an ebb and flow to their power as they find more or less connection to their passengers, breakers will frequently feel this to a greater degree. - BREAKERS, document by Wildbow. but this leads to a high degree of flux in power expression.“Yeah,” he said. “In flux. Sometimes it’s more stable. Lately? It’s very back and forth.” “Powers do that,” I said. “Some more than others. Breakers especially, some Trumps, and powers with a lot of random chance. They depend more on the alien intelligence to manage the power, or they’re closer to that intelligence, so those parahumans feel it more. Powers are more generous or leave you hanging.” - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.2 Trigger events Breaker triggers are perhaps the hardest to define.Breaker triggers are perhaps the hardest to define lay out in clear terms. - reddit comment by Wildbow. On one hand, Breakers emerge from triggers that blur the line between physical and mental.Other Breakers arise from cases where the lines are so blurred and/or intermingled between the physical and the mental that usual classifications don’t neatly fit. - reddit comment by Wildbow. It's not enough for trigger event to have a physical and mental element: The two must be indivisibly linked.Could the elements feeding into one aspect of the trigger be removed, with the trigger event still making some degree of sense? In the above hypothetical, could you remove the parts that make it a changer trigger and leave it as striker only, with a rewrite? If the combination of the two are so interlinked as to be irreconcilable, it could be a breaker trigger. - reddit comment by Wildbow. On the other hand, Breaker powers emerge from abstract stressorsBreakers sometimes come from abstract stressors or those things that are the very odd fits for other classifications. - reddit comment by Wildbow., or from threats that are hard to define or explain.Does, for lack of a better way of putting it, the trigger sit on the outside bounds of the usual ‘box’ that the classification fits in? Strikers trigger from in-your-face hostile threats. Is the threat hard to define or explain, either in the character’s perceptions or in reality? Changers trigger from identity issues and cases where the outside world impugns the character’s set identity. Is that identity crisis hard to define or explain, even for the individual in question? Similar questions can be asked for other classifications. Is the damage a Brute takes hard to explain or frame? Is the long-term problem a tinker faces hard to outline in terms of being long-term or a problem? - reddit comment by Wildbow. They often involve self-contradictory feelings.For a mover, this might include things like wanting to escape on a physical level while mentally feeling that the situation is safe, the inverse, or something more abstract, like wanting to escape reality on a spiritual level and finding oneself unable, or wanting to escape a concept or wanting to escape something that cannot be avoided on a fundamental level. - reddit comment by Wildbow. For a Mover, this might include things like wanting to escape on a physical level while mentally feeling that the situation is safe, the inverse, or something more abstract, like wanting to escape reality on a spiritual level and finding oneself unable, or wanting to escape a concept or wanting to escape something that cannot be avoided on a fundamental level. Drugs, poisons, medical conditions and mental illnesses very frequently involved in the unusual scenarios that make Breaker triggers possible.Drugs, poisons, medical conditions and mental illness very frequently create the unusual scenarios that make Breaker triggers possible. - reddit comment by Wildbow. Common combinations with other ratings As previously stated all powers have some small element of Breaker to them, Breakers generally express other ratings through their alternate state.The breaker state in this case enables the Stranger effect. The options here are too varied to name, but tend to involve toggling the state, often with a cost, but is stronger than it would be without the breaker state. - STRANGERS, document by Wildbow. A Shaker classification is common, as is a Stranger classification.Not uncommon, given that both types of trigger tend to touch on abstracts and unusual sorts of harm can include scenarios where the individual is facing unwanted attention. Such a trigger would either involve an audience or observer while the harm took place or the abstract harm is driven home by a concerted effort and fixation on the part of the other party. - STRANGERS, document by Wildbow. The Trump classification, particularly through edge cases, is also frequently combined with Breaker.Super common. Just take all of the Trump edge cases where people wonder "Is this really trump?" - Trumps are rare, so just dump overflow here. The individual attacked by a tinker-empowered drone. The man caught in the storm of shaker-created power energies, where the creator of those energies is either very far away or dead; the door is open, but not so open that the shard is about to work out a trump-esque result. - reddit comment by Wildbow. PRT countermeasures PRT-teams generally try to target Breakers outside of their enhanced state where possible. Because of the nature of Breaker powers, all other specific countermeasure depend on the parahuman's sub-classifications. Site Navigation Category:Terminology Category:Power Classifications Category:Breaker